The US government has been forced to adopt legislation requiring it to oppose IMF and WB loans, which contain conditions for the imposition of user fees for primary education or primary health care.
PRSP
Conditionality
News
Tanzanian NGOs criticise PRSP
The Government of Tanzania’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) was endorsed by the IMF and WB Boards in early December despite claims from Tanzanian NGOs that the consultative process was inadequate.
Conditionality
News
Reflections on Kenyan PRSP process
NGOs in Kenya are highly critical that the Poverty Reduction Strategy process did not fully involve NGOs, was dominated by the Bank and IMF and was not poverty focussed.
Conditionality
News
New PRSP booklet
World Vision has produced a useful critique of the PRSP process and the IMF and World Bank’s role within it, PRSPs: Good News for the Poor? The booklet offers some helpful suggestions to the Bank and IMF to improve the PRSP process.
Conditionality
News
Bank procedure changes
The World Bank has confirmed that it will tie its Country Assistance Strategies into the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers by 2001.
Conditionality
News
London workshop on sustainability
In late May WWF and UK NGOs organised a workshop on National Strategies for Sustainable Development (NSSDs).
Conditionality
News
Will Meltzer Sink Or Swim?
The debate on the roles of the Bank and Fund looks set to accelerate.
Conditionality
News
Wolfensohn’s jealousy factor in Ahmed move
James Wolfensohn’s disgruntlement that the Poverty Reduction Strategy Process has supplanted his own Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF) is a factor in Masood Ahmed’s, former Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, decision to leave the Bank.
Conditionality
News
New briefing papers
A new short briefing from the Bretton Woods Project, The A, B,C of the PRSP, drawing on discussions with IMF and Bank staff reveals the reality behind the rhetoric of the new IMF and World Bank Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.
Finance
News
Brown’s Committee Is “Political Whitewash”
Bank and Fund staff have complained that the Joint IMF-World Bank Implementation Committee (JIC), which has been established to coordinate work on the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) program is just “political whitewash”.
Featured briefings
3 July 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Summer 2024
3 July 2024
Is the World Bank rolling back commitments to citizen engagement, again?
Understanding the Bank’s chequered history with public, community and civil society participation is key for understanding what is at stake and what to do next.
3 June 2024
A way out for IMF reform
New paper analyses the IMF 16th Quota Review and identifies key governance reforms feasible in the current economic and geopolitical context.